In Greensboro, N.C., on Friday afternoon, Furman regained its mastery of the latter half.

Alex Wilkins scored 27 points and Tom House added 25 to lead Furman to an 89-66 road victory over UNC Greensboro at Bodford Arena. The hustled-up matchup was moved from Saturday ahead of impending weather concerns.

The Paladins, who played with just seven available scholarship players due to injury and illness, improved to 14-7 overall, 5-3 in the Southern Conference. The Spartans slipped to 8-13 and 4-4.

After squandering leads in consecutive games against Wofford and Citadel, this time Furman exploded, not imploded.

Leading 53-52 with under 9:30 to go, Wilkins and Charles Johnston arched in consecutive threes to ignite a 12-2 run that gave Furman a 67-55 advantage on Wilkins’ triple with 6:17 remaining. The Spartans trimmed the margin to 69-61 with five minutes to play, but Furman used a 10-0 rally to close the door.

Cole Bowser buried a three from the corner and Wilkins converted on a drive to the basket before Johnston finished an alley-oop slam. Bowser delivered a two-handed flush on a breakaway before Wilkins capped the run with a 1/2 trip to the foul line.

The Paladins shot .667 in the second half and made good on 12 of their final 14 shots. Furman finished at .552 from the floor, including a 14/27 performance behind the arc, and an 11/12 showing at the charity stripe.

Wilkins and House combined to connect 11/17 three-point attempts and Bowser posted his first career double-double with career-highs in points (13) and rebounds (13). Ben Vander Wal chipped in with 10 points and a career-best eight assists.

Furman outscored the Spartans 32-30 in the paint and posted a 30-27 rebounding edge. The Paladins committed just five turnovers and fashioned an 11-7 edge in points off turnovers.

Justin Neely led the Spartans with 20 points and nine rebounds while K.J. Younger scored 17 points and Valentino Pinedo added 10. UNCG shot .434 from the field but hit just 7/26 three-point attempts.

House pumped in 5/6 three-point attempts in the first half. The Paladins used a 9-0 run in the middle of the opening period to gain the lead and extended the margin to as many as t points before carrying a 35-30 edge into the locker room.

Take a look at the stats here.

Women’s basketball seeks to extend its winning streak to four games and match the program’s best six-game start in SoCon play in 20 years on Saturday when it takes on Samford in a 5 p.m. EST showdown at Pete Hanna Center in Homewood, Ala.

The Paladins (12-8, 4-1 SoCon) claimed their third consecutive victory on Thursday night with a 60-49 triumph over Mercer in Macon, Ga., improving to 6-1 in their last seven games while notching a third straight win over the Bears.

 The 4-1 start in league play is Furman’s best since 2016-17. The last time the Paladins went 5-1 out of the gate in league play was the 2004-25 season.

Samford (8-13, 1-3) fell at home to Wofford, 80-56, on Thursday.

Furman, a 16-16 team a year ago that went 5-9 in league play under third-year head coach Pierre Curtis, returned no starters but has thrived due to the combined effort of several players, among them sophomores Clare Coyle (14.1 ppg) and guard Alyssa Ervin (13.5).

Coyle, a preseason all-conference selection, leads the SoCon in both rebounding (8.9 avg.) and field goal percentage (.532) while ranking fourth in scoring, first in steals (42), and fourth in blocks (22).

The other big cog in Furman’s lineup is Ervin, who scored a game-high 20 points to go along with five rebounds and three steals against Mercer. The 5- 11 transfer from Elon scored 24 against UNCG to help snap the reigning SoCon champion Spartans’ seven-game winning streak and 16-game run versus SoCon foes that spanned 362 days.

The Paladins have gotten key contributions from other players in its recent winning stretch, including sophomore guard Raina McGowens (9.0 ppg, 4.9 rpg), Chantelle Stuart (8.2, 75 ast.), Sophia Pearl (5.8, 55 ast.), and Lauren Bailey (5.7).

Furman’s defense has been stout in its three-game winning streak, limiting UNC Greensboro, Western Carolina, and Mercer to just 46/158 shooting from the field (.291), including 15/64 (.234) from three-point range.  The Paladins held Mercer to four points in the second quarter and Western Carolina to just five points in the fourth, including 12 points total in the second half.

Samford sports a four-game series winning streak against Furman and owns a 23-15 edge in the series. The Bulldogs have won six straight against the Paladins at Pete Hanna Center, where the Paladins last won during the 2019-20 season by a 72-59 score.

Furman shocked Wake Forest, 4-0, Friday night at Mickel Tennis Center.

The women’s tennis squad won the doubles point after capturing victories at flights two and three.  Freshmen Bianca Ceroni and Elle Warren defeated Krystal Blanch and Evie Oxford, 6-3, at flight two, and junior Macy Hitchcock and freshman Molly Robinson topped Sankavi Gownder and Jingyi Li, 6-2, at number three. The flight one match was unfinished, with the Demon Deacons’ Nevena Carton and Kady Tannenbaum leading freshmen Sasha Dimitrov and Lillie Murphy, 4-3.

In singles action, Murphy posted a quick 6-2, 6-2 advantage over Blanch at flight two, then Hitchcock held off Tannenbaum, 6-0, 7-6(7), at number three.  Warren clinched the match for the Paladins by beating Carlton, 7-6(5), 6-3, in the top-seeded contest.  

Matches at flights four and five were unfinished.

Furman (3-1) hosts Davidson on Tuesday at 3 p.m.  The Demon Deacons drop to 1-2 with the loss.

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